Neighbours alerted the fire brigade after noticing smoke and a "horrible" smell coming from the property on the afternoon of September 20 last year - but Ouissem Medouni, 40, instead told firefighters he was cooking a sheep.

Medouni and Sabrina Kouider, 35, have admitted to perverting the course of justice by attempting to burn the body but deny murder.

Firefighter Thomas Hunt said he confronted Medouni after he found human fingers and a nose as he put out the fire, the Old Bailey heard.

He said he had scolded the man, saying the pile of debris had caused damage to the property.

The court was told Sophie would have been 'terrified' during the ordeal

He said: "I was scolding him really, I was saying you've got to get hold of the owner or the landlord and tell him what you've done.

"Once I was happy that I had put enough water on it I was handed a shovel."

But he said when he started to dig into the fire he was met with resistance, saying he spotted "two blackened logs" as well as clothes and jewellery.

Mr Hunt said: "When I recognised it was a body I was concerned for my crew's safety so I held it to myself for what seemed like 20 seconds because I didn't know if I challenged the occupant what might happen next."

He said he then turned to Medouni, saying: "I turned to the occupant and I said 'why are you burning a body?'

"He said 'it's a sheep'."

The firefighter said he did not believe the man, saying he immediately replied, saying: "Bullocks."

Sophie Lionnet's mother Catherine Devallonne and father Patrick Lionnet outside the Old Bailey

Parents of murdered French nanny leave court

But he said that Medouni was "very calm" during the exchange, saying: "When I saw him sit down there was a look of resignation in him in terms of 'the game's up'.

"He maintained that the actual deceased was a sheep and that's the story he stuck with."

He said that he asked multiple times whose body the remains belonged to, but Medouni continued to insist it was a sheep.

Another firefighter, Joseph Wood, said: "It looked like a body because of the way it was lying. I could see a nose. Then I saw tissue and bones and then a hand with five fingers and was certain it was a body. It also started to smell like a body."

It comes after the court yesterday heard that the young French woman became a prisoner in the home after the couple repeatedly accused her of sleeping with Boyzone star Mark Walton.

Ms Lionnet died after suffering fractures to her sternum, four ribs and her jawbone, with Medouni and Kouider accused of trying to cover up the alleged killing by burning her body.

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Richard Horwell, prosecuting, added: "The plan was to dispose of Sophie's body and to explain her disappearance by inventing a story that she had left under something of a cloud and had returned to France.

"Another missing person, no longer their responsibility, her disappearance nothing to do with them."

The trial continues.

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